City says damage from tourney minimal

The fields at the Richard Siegel Soccer Complex show minimal damage to the park after the Tennessee Cup youth soccer tournament Aug. 29-Sept. 1. The picture was taken Tuesday, Sept. 2.(Photo: Murfreesboro Parks and Recreation)

MURFREESBORO – Community concerns over more deterioration to the fields at the Richard Siegel Soccer Complex during last weekend's Tennessee Cup youth soccer tournament were silenced on Thursday.

Thomas Laird, the director of athletics for the Murfreesboro Parks and Recreation Department, said the facility, which is continuing to recover from 60 percent turf loss from winter-kill, suffered minimal additional damage from the event that featured approximately 200 team from 12 states.

"We did have some damage, which was typical, (but) I don't consider it anything more than normal wear on the fields," Laird said. "We closed the fields each night on Saturday and Sunday when the weather broke bad and we actually closed down half of the complex (and) moved games over to the McKnight fields on Sunday and Monday.

"We played quite a few games over at McKnight fields. We watched it and monitored it very closely. When the rains started, (the players) were playing in some pretty heavy rain but they didn't play but for a few minutes before we were able to clear the fields."

Laird also said some of the divisions finished the tournament with penalty kicks instead of games in order to prevent as much unnecessary damage as possible.

"I know what the perception was, but anyone that wants to take a ride over to the complex and take a look at it, the fields are still progressing well," he said. "They're still not where we want them to be but we anticipated it being a year long process just to get them back to where we need them to be but we still don't feel like they were set back any by (the Tennessee Cup)."

The concerns over the damage came just days after the city told the Murfreesboro Soccer Club, which calls the facility home, it wouldn't be allowed to practice at the park for the rest of 2014 in order to allow the fields to rest as much as possible. All of the MSC's games – and other previously scheduled tournaments – will be played as scheduled at the facility.

Kate Crook, mother of three children who play for the MSC, lives in Murfreesboro near the complex and was at the park over the weekend for the tournament. Her family has used the facility the last eight years.

"I'm struggling and I'm a little frustrated with it," Crook said. "It doesn't make a lot of sense to me that outside kids and teams are able to use the facility but our kids can't practice on it. It just doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

"I know that the city and probably more specifically parks and rec has spent a ton of time and a lot money to get the park back to where it needs to be this summer. ... Even if I'm not a soccer parent, I think I would still be concerned with where my tax dollars are being spent. It seems like a lot of the work done to the park over the summer was just wasted with this tournament and the extra damage it created."

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More than 200 teams from 12 different states competed in the third annual Tennessee Cup youth soccer tournament at Richard Siegel Soccer Complex Aug. 29-Sept. 1 but the Murfreesboro Soccer Club, which calls the park home, is not allowed to practice on the facility because of the field conditions.(Photo: Steve Hardison / DNJ Correspondent)

It was the third year of a three-year contract for the Tennessee Cup that was organized by the City of Murfreesboro's Parks and Recreation Department and the Rutherford County Chamber of Commerce.

"... We were under obligations through use agreements and contracts to be able to host it," Laird explained. "The tournament is a huge economic impact to the community. So, for folks in this community who aren't involved in soccer or have nothing to do with soccer, these tournaments are how they see a return on their investments with that park. I know soccer families are very passionate and we certainly want to have the best fields possible for our citizens. However, we do have a lot of citizens that have nothing to do with soccer or are not related to soccer and these tournaments are a means that the economy be boosted. The park was initially built with that in mind. Obviously, we want a world-class facility for our soccer families, but we also wanted to be able to boost the economy through tournaments and tourism. We limit the number of tournaments we host out there. We could probably host a tournament every other week with the number of requests we get but we don't do that. We limit it to certain tournaments a year.

"The thing that I want to emphasize to the public is, we have the entire population of Murfreesboro in our best interest. We're trying to do the right thing for everyone. I know it's tough to not be able to practice out there when we've allowed (the Murfreesboro Soccer Club) to do that for eight years. As the soccer community grows and continues to grow, we've got to find some alternatives so that we don't find ourselves in this situation again."

Contact Will Borthick at wborthick@dnj.com. Follow him on Twitter @willborthick.